October Coup

Title: October Coup – A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad

Author: Mohammed Hyder

Publisher: Roli Books, 2012 (First)

ISBN: 978-81-7436-850-8

Pages: 227

When the British left India in 1947 after dividing her into two, each half was itself vulnerable to further split on account of hundreds of princely states who found the paramount power no longer browbeating them to submission. Most of the princes were ineffective, indulgent and had no idea of how to steer their states to modernity after clearing the cobwebs of centuries of ignorance and superstition. The local rulers hoped to declare independence from both countries and to continue their misrule for many more decades to come. Pakistan was lucky not to have faced such a standoff as it had only a few princely states which readily joined the new nation. India was different, but the steely will of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, India’s first home minister, prevailed over the petty kings who found their knees bending like a piece of rubber before the Iron Man of India. Three states – Hyderabad, Kashmir and Junagadh – posed problems for the new government as they wanted either to remain independent or accede to Pakistan. Hyderabad was the most numerous and powerful among the three, whose Muslim ruler – the Nizam – wanted to remain free. Riding roughshod on the backs of the Hindu majority in that state, the Nizam and the state’s Muslim aristocracy who monopolized all the administrative posts didn’t want to give up their undemocratic privileges. Patel waited and waited for the Nizam to see reason, but who was bent on prolonging the negotiations on the one side and amassing weapons on the other, at the same time trying diplomatic overtures to make the UN Security Council involved in the case, in a bid to escalate the standoff to the level of an international issue. Meanwhile, the aristocracy formed a private militia calling themselves Razakars, who intimidated the Hindus and subjected them to untold atrocities and acts of aggression. India lost patience in the end and annexed the state after a ‘Police Action’ which thoroughly wiped off the erstwhile Nizam’s administration. Mohammed Hyder was the Collector of a border district in Hyderabad state and describes the story of the final days. The author was removed from his post and charged with multiple counts of murder, loot and arson. He was incarcerated for a few years and later released when the new government didn’t pursue the cases against him in Supreme Court. The book presents the story of those tumultuous days and the author’s legal battle to get himself freed from prison against a crime he has not committed, as he says.

Hyder was posted as the Collector of Osmanabad in January 1948. Being a border district, the civil administration found it difficult to stem in the miscreants from across the border, where Hyderabadi Hindus found asylum from the ransacking Pathan and Arab mobs. His assertion that the border camps were the shelter of hooligans who committed murder, loot and arson may be taken only with a pinch of salt. Hyderabad had a naturally porous border with India, with many villages overlapping with that of India, and the very existence of the princely state was untenable, according to the author’s own words. The Standstill Agreement signed by the Nizam with Indian Union stipulated discussions to be held regarding the state’s status and that needed time. But the Nizam and the ruling Muslim aristocracy had no plans to acquiesce in to representative government as they were apprehensive about the Hindu majority gaining upper hand in such a situation. It planned to invoke the UN Security Council and had plans afoot to large scale import of weapons from Pakistan (p. 52). The Hindus were intimidated to unprecedented scales and Hyder states even little Muslim children harassed them (p. 26). Obviously, India had to resort to firm action, which materialized in September 1948 and the state was annexed, which Hyder claims was really a military invasion.

Even though the book is titled ‘October Coup – A Memoir of the Struggle for Hyderabad’, the memoir of the struggle constitute only a brief part of the narrative, the remainder dedicated to highlight the author’s legal battle against the state. Immediately after the ‘Police Action’, Hyder was suspended from service and four months later, he was arrested. Being a member of the aristocracy, considerable leniency was shown to him and he could shirk police custody by fortuitously coming up with a case of dysentery! After spending nearly a month in hospital, he was transferred at last to Osmanabad prison. 19 cases of murder and dozens of instances of dacoity were charged against him and in a double murder case, he was even sentenced to death! The accused used all legal options open to him and even succeeded in quashing the constitutionality of special tribunals set up to try them. But on appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the constitution of the special courts. Hyder was convicted on all counts by the special judge, but the High Court acquitted him on account of the technical issue. The state went in for appeal and the apex court overturned the High Court verdict. Strangely, the government didn’t pursue the case against the author and it was dropped.

Hyder protests his innocence voluminously, but his arguments appear as untenable to impartial observers. He cites the late filing of FIR on a murder case on which he was charged. The Police filed an FIR only after India took over Hyderabad, which is cited as an irregularity. But, what justice could the victims hope to obtain, when the police and judiciary in Nizam’s state was controlled by the uncivilized Razakars and Majlis e-Ittihadul Muslimeen? It is no wonder that not even an FIR was filed in that era. Even though not convicted at the end of the term, the legal wrangles lasted for nearly ten years and he was removed from service. He fought the decision, but to no avail. The courts upheld the government’s contention that they don’t want this man and no reasons were disclosed for sending him out. Hyder gives a verbatim account of the affidavits couched in legal language, which greatly diminishes the readability of the book. From this point onwards, the course deviates from a memoir to the author’s personal legal file which is not at all appealing and relevant for the general reader.

However self-promoting and one-sided the argument is, the book presents occasional flashes of fine metaphor and excellent historical allusions which carry the day. Hyderabad’s worsening law and order situation while Sardar Patel, also known as India’s Iron Man, was eagerly watching for an opportunity to intervene, is stated as, “Hyderabad had attained the required white heat and there could not be a more opportune moment for the Iron Man to strike” (p. 70). On his servant helping him with an open heart while he himself was languishing in prison, he says, “It was one of those relationships where the servant gives more than the master has either the right to expect or the ability to reward, putting the latter forever in his doubt” (p. 104). Also, the allusion to the struggle between Athens and Melos in classical Greece where the democratic Athens forcibly annexed the militarily weak island of Melos, was a fine, rhetorical comparison to the situation between India and Hyderabad.

The book inadvertently brings to light the deplorable conditions prevailed in pre-annexation Hyderabad in particular and all princely states in general. An aristocracy that cleverly managed the strings and cliques connected to the soverign, de facto ruled the state as its fief. The civil service was dominated by them, all plum positions reserved for their kin. Reading between the lines, it is highly probable that the author’s own entry into the Hyderabad Civil Service immediately after completing his B.A, might have been due to the highly influential connections enjoyed by his family. His father-in-law was the Director General of Police having intimate relationship with the ruler and the prime minister. In deed, when he asked for a posting as the collector of a difficult border district, the minister sanctions the request only after getting clearance from the father-in-law! The same family network helped him make acquaintance with Qasim Razwi, the terrorizing founder of the notorious Razakar movement, that was a private militia of the aristocracy, but also employable to achieve the religious whims of the Muslim clergy. Law and order was in the hands of the undisciplined Razakars who went on committing atrocities on the helpless Hindu citizens with impunity. Hyder has taken great pains to extricate himself from any allegation of complicity with the Razakars, but the quantum of outrage the liberated Hyderabadi administration felt towards him betrays his underhanded deals with the dreaded lawless movement. To add to the travails of the common man, Pathans and Arabs who were mercenaries in Nizam’s forces, also extorted the Hindus. The author himself expresses his revulsion towards this cruel, unintelligent and semi-barbarous goons going about their ways with no let or hindrance. It is only with deep shock can we discern the terrible fact that the erstwhile Hyderabad government employed these scoundrels in the special police branch (p. 59). No wonder, these public servants ran protection rackets among the border villages (p. 61). The height of mismanagement is seen when the author declares that he dismissed a tehsildar (a senior civil servant in the district administration) of his own department for taking part in daylight looting! (p. 45).

The book is recommended.

Rating: 2 Star